Chrome Soldiers

Relativity Media
There's a wealth of material for filmmakers to pry out of the troubles that America has faced in the past decade. The depressed economy, the plight of the returning soldier, and the loss of American industry have all informed the plots of many of the best films written in the past couple years. In his second directorial effort, Out of the Furnace, filmmaker Scott Cooper attempts to turn the myriad of America’s most pressing issues into a story set in the backdrop of the country’s hard suffering Rust Belt, but he comes away with a merely competent dramatic thriller that clearly aspired to be something grander.
In the film, Christian Bale plays the hardworking and upstanding Russell Baze, an almost impossibly good-natured man who has worked in the local steel mill his entire life, and had planned, just like his ailing father, to do so until the day he died. But when the steel mill is scheduled to close, Baze's way of life as well as the town itself is crippled. Casey Affleck plays Russell's sensitive brother Rodney, whose tours in Iraq have left him emotionally eruptive and dissatisfied with his brother’s working man existence; Rodney would rather spend his time competing in underground fighting rings where he can still feel something. Rodney soon finds himself wrapped up in violent and reactionary crime ring that doesn't take kindly to strangers. It’s up to Russell to save his brother from the grips of the areas most terrifying criminals
Out of the Furnace is appealingly glum. Cooper finds beauty in the rolling hills and crumbling infrastructure of small town Pennsylvania, and the film fully embraces the derelict beauty of its settings, down to even the homes and the cars that the characters own. The film clearly prides itself on feeling authentic and it reaches its goals visually — at the very least.
The relationship between the brothers Baze also feels remarkably authentic. Both Bale and Affleck sell the relationship deftly, and have an almost tangible amount of on-screen chemistry that expresses their bond for each other in a way that no script could. This chemistry makes the scenes where Rodney has gone missing burn with terrific dramatic intensity.
There’s a quiet desperation in these people. Though they may be hopeful and happy in their set paths, there’s a feeling that they’re all walking along streets heading nowhere. America isn’t the land of opportunity anymore, not for the soldiers or the factory workers. The only thriving ones seem to be the criminals like Woody Harrelson’s Curtis Degroat, who is so overarchingly villainous that the only thing the character is missing is a dastardly moustache to twirl.
Relativity Media
And this is the big issue with Out of the Furnace. While Harrelson’s performance is at times chilling, the script often dovetails Degroat into an overdone cartoon bad guy, and this weak characterization flows through a lot of the characters and seriously undermines a lot of the authenticity that the film believes itself to be built upon. There's a particularly groan-inducing scene where Degroat decries the human race in the gruffest voice he can muster. Woody’s Degroat character, and most of the others in the film, aren’t so much developed characters, but act more like clichéd archetypes in Cooper’s parable about a broken America. Degroat is simply the bad guy, and not characterized beyond that one-dimensional role in this story. Affleck’s wounded war veteran feels overwrought as well, with many of his scenes laying down the melodrama in thick sheets, particularly when he’s discussing the terrors he’s faced in the war oversees.
Out of the Furnace has a lot of things on its mind about the state of America’s small towns and working class heroes, but it doesn’t know the best way to express itself, and while some of it’s sentiments ring true others clank harshly like an off-note. The remarkable cast does its best to prop up a film that wants to tell a great American story, but it only manages to tell a fairly middling one.
2.5/5
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All the champagne has been popped, the confetti swept off the floor, and the entertainment execs shuttled bleary-eyed onto a plane back to LA, because the TV Upfronts are over. This little season where all the channels try to convince advertisers that their new shows are going to be awesome is all done. But other than all the particulars of the new fall lineups and the trailers for all the new shows, what else did we learn? Here are some trends!
Super Powers: Just like in the movies, it's all about the superheroes on TV these days. ABC's Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is in the same universe as The Avengers, The CW's Tomorrow People is a bit of an X-Men ripoff with mutant powers, ABC's Resurrection has a kid mysteriously coming back to life, and CBS' Intelligence has Josh Holloway (yes, Sawyer from Lost) as a cop with a magic microchip in his brain. Just wait, we're going to find out that Alice in Once Upon a Time in Wonderland has powers too.
The Mini-Series Is Back: Doomed to irrelevance just a decade ago, limited edition programming is in for the fall. NBC has limited series Dracula all lined up, but Fox is betting the farm on a host of one-shot deals including the much-hyped 24 relaunch. They also have Billy the Kidd, Blood Brothers, The People V OJ Simpson, and a remake of classic miniseries Shogun on tap.
Fox Is Busting Up the Schedule: In a seeming response to the threat posed by cable channels and newfangled "TV" networks like Neflix is Hulu, Fox is trying to shake off the traditional September-to-May TV schedule with year-round programming. Between the mini-series and shortened schedules for other shows, the network's roster will be revolving at all times. Is this the start of the end of TV as we know it?
Who Doesn't Love a Rag Tag Group?: Sure, NBC gave Go On, a show about a diverse group of people in therapy, the axe, but the motley crew is back in a big way in a number of sitcoms. ABC's Back in the Game is a new take on the Bad News Bears, ABC's Super Fun Night shows three dorky girls trying to have the time of their lives, ABC's Lucky 7 has a weird group of coworkers winning the lottery (remember when this was called Windfall in 2006?), NBC's Undateable looks into the love lives of nerds, Fox's Enlisted is about the world's worst soldiers, and Andy Samberg leads a silly squad of cops on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
NBC Is Trying to Change...into CBS: With few shows left on its roster and even fewer hits, NBC is currently TV's whipping boy. But it's trying something different. Well, it's trying to be CBS. Its new comedies are all broad and mostly three-camera (see Sean Saves the World) and they're trying a bunch of procedurals like The Blacklist (with James Spader, which actually looks good), Ironside (a remake of the cop-in-a-wheelchair show), and Chicago PD (a spin-off of Chicago Fire).
It's Always About the Parents: Plenty in this year's crop of shows feature adults dealing with their older parents. Will Arnett's parents move back in on CBS' The Millers, Anna Faris deals with her crazy mom Allison Janney on CBS' Mom, Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi can't take their Dads on Fox, James Caan and his daughter coach her kid's little league team on ABC's Back in the Game, and Sarah Michelle Gellar is cursed with having Robin Williams as her dad and business partner on CBS' The Crazy Ones.
The Past Is Our Future: Everything old is new again! The CW gets all soapy with Mary Queen of Scots in Reign, the '80s get The Wonder Years treatment (with more camp) in ABC's The Goldbergs, and in Fox's insane Sleepy Hollow Ichibod Crane literally wakes up in the modern day to fight the headless horseman once again. Sometimes the past should stay buried.
The Future Is Also Our Future: Not only are we going to the past, but the future is so bright, we have to wear shades. Or, well, we have to have our cops partner with robots in J.J. Abrams' Fox drama Almost Human. The CW is going all genre all the time and both The 100, where teenage criminals are shipped off to a ruined planet Earth, and Star Crossed, about human and alien integration in high school, are both set in brave new worlds.
The CW Is Sticking to Its Guns: If sci-fi and teen drama shows work for the network, why fix it? All of their new offerings fall into one category or the other. Like someone who wears the same outfit every day, at least they know what looks good on them.
Follow Brian Moylan on Facebook and Twitter @BrianJMoylan
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